Flexible Peripheral Nerve Electrode with Pores for Tissue Reconstruction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current neural electrodes, both intrafascicular and extrafascicular, face challenges in providing long-term stable multi-channel control signals for peripheral nerves due to tissue damage, displacement, and scar formation, limiting their ability to accurately record and stimulate complex sensory signals.
Innovation Solution
A flexible electrode with a multi-layer structure, including insulating layers, wire layers, and electrode sites, designed with pores and stretchability to facilitate nerve reconstruction, allowing for close contact and stable signal acquisition and application, utilizing a serpentine or linear extension portions to conform to nerve deformation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional rigid neural electrodes are used, then signal acquisition capability is achieved, but tissue damage and displacement occur leading to poor long-term stability
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs flexible polymer materials (such as silicone or polyimide) to construct the electrode housing and insulation layers, replacing traditional rigid structures. This flexibility allows the electrode to adapt to nerve movement and tissue deformation without causing damage or displacement, thereby achieving long-term stability while eliminating the harmful effects of tissue injury associated with rigid electrodes
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the mechanical parameters of the electrode by controlling material composition and structural design to achieve specific flexibility and compliance characteristics. The electrode is designed with controlled stiffness to match the mechanical properties of surrounding neural tissue, enabling it to move together with the nerve without causing damage or losing contact during tissue deformation
2Object-affected harmful factors
If electrode structure is made flexible to reduce tissue damage, then biocompatibility improves, but manufacturing precision becomes more difficult to achieve
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the electrode into multiple functional segments including flexible insulation layers, conductive wire elements, and electrode contact points. Each segment can be manufactured separately using standardized processes, then assembled together. This segmentation allows for easier manufacturing of flexible components while maintaining overall precision through modular assembly
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses composite material structures combining flexible polymers with conductive materials in layered configurations. These composite structures leverage the manufacturing advantages of each material type - the flexibility of polymers and the precision of conductive material deposition - to achieve both biocompatibility and manufacturing feasibility
3Productivity
If multi-channel electrode sites are integrated, then signal acquisition capability increases, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple electrode sites and conductive elements into a single integrated flexible electrode structure. The conductive wires and electrode contacts are combined within a unified flexible housing that can be implanted as one component. This merging approach increases signal acquisition capability through multi-channel functionality while reducing device complexity by eliminating the need for separate rigid electrode assemblies and their associated complex installation procedures
Data Source
AI summary
The present disclosure relates to a flexible electrode for a peripheral nerve and a method for manufacturing the same. A flexible electrode for a peripheral nerve is provided, which includes an implantation portion that can be implanted into a truncated peripheral nerve or a nerve stump and configured to acquire or apply an electrical signal inside and on a surface of a peripheral nerve bundle. The flexible electrode includes first and second insulating layers and a wire layer located therebetween. The implantation portion includes one or more electrode sites each electrically coupled to one of wires in the wire layer and in contact with the peripheral nerve after implantation of the flexible electrode. The implantation portion has pores to facilitate reconstruction of the peripheral nerve and to be in close contact with the peripheral nerve after reconstruction.